A child said, What is the grass ? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he.
[6.1]
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition , out of hopeful green stuff woven.
[6.2]
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer, designedly dropt, 95
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say, Whose?
[6.3]
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.
[6.4]
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic ;
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white; 100 Kanuck , Tuckahoe , Congressman, Cuff , I give them the same, I receive them the same.
[6.4]
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
[6.5]
Tenderly will I use you, curling grass;
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men;
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them; 105
It may be you are from old people, and from women, and from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps;
And here you are the mothers’ laps.
[6.6]
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers;
Darker than the colorless beards of old men;
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. 110
[6.7]
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
[6.8]
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
[6.9]
What do you think has become of the young and old men? 115
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
[6.10]
They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death;
And if ever there was, it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d. 120
[6.11]
All goes onward and outward—nothing collapses;
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
[6.12]
6.
A child said, What is the grass ? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he.
[6.1]
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition , out of hopeful green stuff woven.
[6.2]
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer, designedly dropt, 95
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say, Whose?
[6.3]
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.
[6.4]
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic ;
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white; 100
Kanuck , Tuckahoe , Congressman, Cuff , I give them the same, I receive them the same.
[6.4]
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
[6.5]
Tenderly will I use you, curling grass;
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men;
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them; 105
It may be you are from old people, and from women, and from offspring taken soon out of their mothers’ laps;
And here you are the mothers’ laps.
[6.6]
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers;
Darker than the colorless beards of old men;
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. 110
[6.7]
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
[6.8]
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
[6.9]
What do you think has become of the young and old men? 115
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
[6.10]
They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death;
And if ever there was, it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d. 120
[6.11]
All goes onward and outward—nothing collapses;
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
[6.12]
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